Blog

Janette Kim Logo

My logo took time to develop before it became my brand. It is a representation of who I am. You see, it started from when I was a little girl. Growing up, I was always a bit of a wallflower who enjoyed collecting itty-bitty trinkets, pranced around in 3" heels, and was infatuated with vintage things...especially Victorian cameos.

In 2008, when I was an undergraduate at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, I decided to skip a week of school to travel to Europe with a few friends. One night in Czech Republic, I stumbled upon a jewelry shop and found a stunning tiny auburn cameo necklace. The details were elegant, the quality was authentic, the look was unique, and it had to be mine. When I returned to NYC, I wore that necklace everyday, until one day – it disappeared. It's been over six years and the thought of that missing necklace makes my heart sink to the bottom of my stomach. On the bright side, I turned this negative experience into a positive expression.

In 2010, I mashed together this experience and my love for cameos to re-brand my logo as a silhouette of my head. Why the bun? Well there are a number of reasons. If you haven't noticed, my hair can get pretty crazy, and it's not easy to tame or maintain. People even mentioned that my hair resembles a bird's nest so I shamelessly tied my hair up in a bun everyday. Friends and sometimes strangers would refer to me as the "girl with the bun" and I embraced that image. Eventually my bun just became this thing that I ran with. So that's the story of how I established my brand and the rest is history.

In all things that I do, I try to live life with purpose and meaning. It's important that every decision I make is from the heart and an accurate reflection of who I am as an artist. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.

A comparison between cray cray and tamed! Photographed in 2008.

Took one shot and illustrated a silhouette of my face. The logo on the right was my very first attempt as you can tell by the way the neck doesn't look perfect. Photographed in 2010.